Grandmaster Zhao Jun of China lost to Le Quang Liem of Vietnam in the final round on Friday but still won the first FIDE president Florencio  Campomanes Cup Chess tournament at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Zhou and Le finished the tournament with identical 7 points, but the Chinese GM was declared winner by virtue of a higher tiebreak.

Both players, however, split the first and second prizes, each worth $9,500.

China’s GM Liren Ding and Jianchao Zhou, Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia and newly-crowned Pichay Cup titlist Anton Filippov figured in a four-way tie at 6.5 points and got $6,500  apiece.

Following the tiebreak, Ding clinched third. He won his match against Singapore GM Zhang Zhong in 67 moves of Old Indian.

Wesley So was the country’s top performer in seventh place.

So finished in a tie with GM Darwin Laylo and IM Richard Bitoon, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran, Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakhstan, Li Chao of China and Tamaz Gelashvili of Georgia. They wound up with similar 6 points and got $1,914 each.

So split his last game with Murtas and Laylo halved a point with GM Ni Hua of China. Bitoon beat Eugene Torre.

Ghaem Maghami drew with Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia and Li Chao beat local bet Ronald Dableo. Tamaz whipped Indian GM Chanda Sandipan.